8 Steps To Take Before Developing a Mobile App in 2021(App Development 1 of 7)

Mobile app development can be a stressful process especially for first-timers. According to Gartner, only 1 out 100 apps are considered financially successful. That is a staggering statistics giving the rapid growth of developing apps that nearly doubled last two years and expected to continue this trend into the decade.  One silver lining of the failures of the pasts though; we have more data today, modern Low-Code/No-Code platforms, and industry experience to help avoid being a statistics.

This blog series will take you through a journey of how to be successful in building a mobile app with practical examples and approaches.   We have pioneered a simple Playbook for this journey and we bring industry experience in helping you accelerate into the digital world.

Here is a preview of our 7 blogs series:

• 8 Steps To Take Before Developing a Mobile App.
• What are the Features Your MVP Must Have? (June 2021 coming soon...) 
  
• What are APIs? Everything You Need to Know (June 2021 coming soon...)
  
• 4 No-Code Tools To Build APIs With (July 2021 coming soon...)
  
• How to Use No-Code Automation Testing for your App (July 2021 coming soon...)
  
• Low-Code vs. No-Code: What's the Difference? (July 2021 coming soon...)
  
• We Tried These 3 No-Code App Builders and Here are our Thoughts (July 2021 coming soon...)

Before you start building mobile apps, you must know what the whole thing entails. However, there are many ways you can conduct research and come up with something your customers will love.

For instance, you need to know who your competitors are. While it is impossible to know all your competitors, you can learn a good number of them.

Once you know what they are doing, get in touch with their customers, or try to use the products they make. That way, you will quickly identify where their weaknesses are. Your primary attention, in this case, is to know their weaknesses. One of the easiest ways to identify their weaknesses is by engaging their current customers. Talk to them to find out what they don’t like about such apps. You can find the users online or in person.

Use the information they share to make better applications that people would opt for. Besides weaknesses, you want to know the strengths of your competitors. Don’t panic even if you learn that they have a strong market presence. If they are doing well, you can also record impressive success and learn from them.

Do your homework ahead. When doing that, you need to take your time to learn everything about coming up with a mobile application.

It's okay if this is something you have never tried before. For instance, you might not be aware of the most profitable niche to explore. To make the best decision, take your time and understand different niches and their benefits.

If you find it hard to carve out a niche, talk to an expert. They will ask you about your interests and key strengths. Based on the discussion, they will advise you about the niche that would suit you best.

After you have settled on a niche, you want to learn everything about it. Join relevant communities and talk to individuals in the same place. They might share with you some essential insights.

The reason you should stick to one niche market is that you’ll be able to focus all of your efforts on that field and establish yourself as an expert. Sticking to one niche makes it easier to understand your customers as you strive to impress them. Even if you feel that others might do well, don’t give up on what you have already decided to do.

This point might seem easy and strait, but it entails a lot. Budgeting is a process that might take time, and you need to plan carefully. Most individuals make mistakes when trying to find the best developers to higher. But when they realize that the whole process costs money, they skimp on quality and hire anyone. That is not the best mentality, as it would affect your app’s performance once it’s rolled out.

Think about the process of coming up with a plan, hiring the best developers, testing the mobile app, and rolling it out. All that requires money, and unless you are financially prepared, you will fail.

To help you with the budgeting process, we encourage you to check out our free mobile app development cost calculator. It will give you an initial estimate of how much you need to build an app from start to finish.

You have not made your app yet, but do you intend to monetize it? If you haven’t decided yet, you need to do that before the application is ready for the market. We have shared important tips with you below on how you can monetize your app.

First, you can make money from your app by offering “freemium” services. Again, this is the reason you needed to research and learn about your competitors. Once you do that, you will find their weakness, one of them being exorbitant prices.

Some entrepreneurs charge a vast sum of money for products or services they should provide for free. You can find services that your competitors charge for and issue them at no cost. In your app, you will define them as essential services. You will then come up with additional services that your users need to pay for.

You can also make money through advertising. However, for a business to post ads on your app, it must have several users. If you want to make money through ad placements, focus on having as many users as possible.

As an entrepreneur, you need to be the best so customers will come looking for you. With many software companies on the internet, you might not be sure who to contact. Based on your needs, you should take your time and find a team that you can trust.

You should choose a reputable mobile app development company with deep expertise in the field of app development, product management, Digital Transformation, and build a long lasting relationship with the company. 

When the app is ready, how will you find your users? There are many ways that you can find customers on the internet and offline. It is imperative to determine how best you want to get your mobile app out there.

Depending on your niche, it is possible to use social media as the best marketing tool. Although social media has become common, not everyone uses it. For instance, you can’t market your app on social media if you want to target older people. Therefore, look for other marketing channels is more suitable to your niche as well as your goals.

The next technique is to market your app via content. Content marketing has a lot to do with SEO. Once your app is ready and has a name, you can create a website for it.

On the website, write content about the app and the problems it will solve. Use content to sell your audience about the existence of your app and why they need to give it a try.

You can also send emails to your contacts asking them to try your application. You will share the emails with individuals who would genuinely find your mobile app helpful.

How would you please your users if you don’t understand them in the first place? Even if you manage to hire the best developers on the web, you need to understand the users. Unless you do that, you will make the wrong app that they won’t appreciate.

Understanding your users entails a lot of things. Begin by doing your homework to identify the issues giving them sleepless nights. Let’s take the example of an online lending app.

Some apps can’t provide the best loan limits to users, even if they have good credit scores. If someone is worth a loan of $5,000 and you only want to give them $%1,000, they won’t be happy about it.

If you know your users, giving them the best services becomes a walk in the park. Looking at everything from the customers’ perspectives makes it possible to develop an app with the users in mind.

Have you ever tried an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) before? If you answered no, you need to develop your MVP before making the app fully available. Many benefits come with designing an MVP, and you should take advantage of them.

Note that this was your very first business concept. So, you don’t know whether it will work as you anticipated. The best way to find that out is by designing an MVP. Mobile app development is a lengthy process.

From the start to the end, your mobile app developers might make many mistakes. Unless you discover the errors on time, they can affect the performance of the mobile application.

You can also develop MVPs to identify how best to monetize your mobile app in the early process.

This blog is a comprehensive guide on developing a mobile app that focuses on getting ahead of your competitors.

If you plan on building a mobile app for your business, our team will make sure that you have the best app that attracts as many users as possible. Get in touch with us today for more information about our service and how you can place an order. As you plan to make an app in the niche of your choice, be sure to leverage the information in this guide.